Chicken and Garden Veggies Quinoa Skillet

Posted July 9, 2014

Under 40 minutes and you have a healthy dinner with leftovers the whole family will love. Use any firm veggies you got on hand.

Sautéed chicken with bell peppers, zucchini, broccoli and quinoa. All in one skillet and takes less than 40 minutes to make. I do love simple dinners and my chicken. My garden is not overflowing with vegetables but my local farm market is.

As much as I love cooking, I equally do not enjoy gardening. This summer I haven’t planted even a single herb. Alex volunteered to stick 2 tomato and 2 cucumber plants for the kids. Where as I chose to lay on a swing, listen to the waterfall and admire the figs, apples and pears I will be picking soon. Yay for fruit trees.

Anyways, back to the skillet. In Ukrainian cooking, garlic and onion make a base for stews, sauces and gravies. And that’s what I did for this quinoa skillet. So easy, you will be like “What?!”. Seriously, sautéed garlic and onion make everything taste better. So cheap and simple. Browned bell peppers are 10 times more fragrant than raw. So, I did that. Think of a roasted pepper, same idea.

Then I added quinoa, spices and water. Covered and cooked just until quinoa became al dente. Next I added my firm veggies – broccoli and zucchini. Adding them later prevents mushy vegetables skillet. You could also use asparagus, snap peas or cauliflower.

Cover and cook until most of the liquid is absorbed and quinoa is soft. Add tomatoes for some sweet punch, sprinkle with fresh herbs and your dinner is ready. Like I said, play around with veggies and use what your family likes. Fresh herb ideas are dill, parsley, basil or green onion. Anything you got in your garden, if you have one. Enjoy!

Now it's time to add vegetables. At this point quinoa should be cooked al dente.* Add zucchini and broccoli. Stir, cover with a lid and cook on low-medium for 15 more minutes. Add grape tomatoes and parsley, stir and remove from heat. Serve hot.

Storage Instructions: Refrigerate covered for up to 3 days.

Notes

*Some readers said after this quinoa started to burn. I think it depends how much liquid your chicken releases during cooking process. Many store bought chicken breasts are infused with water to make them heavier. And that's what I used for this recipe. Farm chicken is usually more dry. Therefor, do your own judgement and add 1/2 - 1 cup extra water if necessary.

Nutritional Info

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35 Responses to “Chicken and Garden Veggies Quinoa Skillet”

I’ve never tried adding the quinoa right into a pot of veggies like that. I’ll have to try it! I am like you with gardening- I want the fresh herbs and produce, but I can’t be bothered to water them on a regular schedule!

I was nervous about quinoa in skillets before but not after I experimented it in a slowcooker. It will be fine. Very tender and delicious. Yes, I cook it in my slowcooker a lot. Yeah, I have too many responsibilities besides plants. So much easier to pay a buck for some parsley or cilantro. I know. Unless gardening is a hobby and you love it.

The looks delicious! It reminds me a lot of a summer meal my Ukrainian grandmother used to make. She used pasta instead of quinoa, but it was always onion, garlic, chicken, dill, and whatever veggies were around. It always ended up tasting so good! Ukrainians seem to know how to make some of the tastiest food

Thank you, Kristin. Ukrainian cooking involves a lot of fresh herbs and veggies. Very simple but fragrant, therefore delicious. Just like Latin or any Mediterranean cuisine, just different flavours. Anything fresh tastes good and doesn’t have to be complicated.:)

I just love it when you can prove that healthy food doesn’t have to taste, hmmmm, all that healthy! Lovin’ all the ingredients in this one and big bonus is the leftovers!

I’ll trade ya, you do the cooking and I’ll do the gardening! I dred cooking each night, it really bogs me down. Have to get myself a pep talk every time to start dinner. Always tell myself…. hmm, can’t we just go to McDonalds every night?

But I must confess, I must have fresh herbs! Must! Dried ones just one do when fresh ones are an option!!

Oh, really?! That must be hard! I love cooking but I do get tired of it everyday. So, I understand it’s even harder for you. Currently I dream of an all-inclusive. Just not to think about anything for a week or two: what’s for dinner, what snacks are we packing, what’s for lunch.:) I love fresh herbs from my local store LOL. I stock up but I can’t stand watering the garden every night. I’d rather go work out LOL.

Camille

Efrat

It came out great! I only have a few questions:
1. I went exactly by the recipe, but still some of the quinoa was burned. What did I do wrong?
2. Also I think the broccoli was not cooked enough. Again -what did I do wrong?
3. If I want to add sweet potatoes – how much should I add and when?

Hi Efrat. It’s hard to tell why your quinoa was a little bit burnt since I wasn’t in the kitchen with you but these are the possible reasons:
1. Your skillet – I have a good non-stick skillet.
2. The heat was too high – stoves vary.
3. Not enough water – try a bit more next time.

I like crunchy broccoli. For more cooked version just add broccoli by a few minutes earlier. For the sweet potato, I would add not more than 1 large, chopped. Add with quinoa, I suspect you like well cooked vegetables.:) Hope this helps.:)

Efrat

May I ask how you’ve calculated the WW+ points?
I’m making the dish exactly the same way you wrote (I added sweet potato though, which is by the way great).
From what I know the quinoa is 18 points per cup, 2 breasts are 6, and a large sweet potato is also 6. That sums up to 30 WW+ and the dish is huge and has 16 cups total.
Am I doing any mistake? (It’s really important to me as I follow the WW diet).
Thanks

Efrat

Found it. I don’t know how to calculate it with calories and proteins and etc, but when I calculate it accordingly to the WW+ points each of the ingredients worth, it sums up to 30 WW+ total, which means each cup is 2 WW+.

Efrat

Vegetables in this dish are mostly calories and fiber in terms of macros. And the calculator I use doesn’t take calories into consideration at all, and fiber content always helps to keep the points down. There is also a bit of oil and a quite a bit of quinoa and meat.

I recently switched a chicken brand and noticed my new chicken breasts didn’t produce as much water as previous brand. So, yes add more water after checking half way through quinoa cooking time. I will add that to the recipe.

Hana

Lynda

Loved the idea of this recipe so decided to try. My quinoa didn’t cook well though, still crunchy although I followed the time and added more time. Lots of liquid as it didn’t burn like others mentioned. What did I do wrong? Otherwise flavours were good, like others I added chicken stock and also a bit of soya.

Kate

This makes a ton of food! I’ve been adding different things with all the leftoves. One day, I added coconut aminos and it was like “fried rice”. Another day I added in parmesean cheese and another day squeezed fresh lemon juice.